Part of the government crisis is over, Huliak got what he wanted. The coalition counted on minor disputes, a political expert told ta3

Relations in the Slovak National Party (SNS) are at the freezing point. Rudolf Huliak, unbeknownst to the leader of the nationalists, has asked to change the name of the parliamentary caucus in order to pursue his own policies.

This move is seen by party chairman Andrej Danko as a betrayal and he is distancing himself from Huliak.

Political expert Miroslav Řádek from Trenčín University suggests that Huliak's reasons are not related to his policy towards LGBTI+ communities, but to power deals.

When the club breaks up

In the meantime, Huliak has lost his nominees for important state posts, which he sees as Danko's revenge.

SNS deputy chairman Pavol Ľupták even warns that if this does not stop, his promise to keep the SNS parliamentary club will not be valid. The SNS deputy club has 10 members. If three leave, seven will remain. There must be at least eight MPs to have a caucus.

"It would be more comfortable for the governing coalition if it consisted of three standard deputy caucuses. However, from a technical point of view, this does not affect the stability of the government, because even if one of the caucuses disappears, the MPs themselves, including members of the SNS and other smaller parties, still express loyalty to the government majority," the political expert explains.

Although some MPs will lose the benefits of being a member of a parliamentary club, this does not fundamentally change the balance of power in parliament.

Achieved his goal

It is obvious that someone behind the political scenes was in talks with Huliak and his allies from the larger parties, as his unexpected stance of the previous days came as a surprise.

Huliak appeared calm at the press conference, while Danko was clearly shocked.

"Most of the government crisis has been resolved and I think Rudolf Huliak seems to have gotten his way or specifically said his demands," the political expert says.

Huliak is unlikely to give up his support for the Voice candidate for the post of parliamentary speaker, Řádek thinks.

Strategic vote of the plenary

The question remains whether the government's consolidation package will be affected by this conflict.

The political expert assumes that there will be no disruption in the approval of the package, "in the extreme case, this vote will just be postponed until next week or one of the following days."

According to Radek, the ruling coalition strategically scheduled the vote on the consolidation package for this week, setting the stage in advance to deal with potential minor problems.

"However, these expected complications will not have a serious impact on the government or on the economic consolidation process itself," the political expert concludes on the topic.

The full interview with political expert Miroslav Řádek can be viewed here: